2 Americans appealing convictions for Italian police slaying

ROME (AP) — Italy’s highest court is hearing a final appeal of two U.S. citizens convicted in the stabbing death of a police officer during a plainclothes operation in Rome in the summer of 2019. Finnegan Lee Elder, now 23, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, now 22, were convicted in May 2021 of slaying the 35-year-old officer, as well as of attempted extortion, resisting a public official and carrying an attack-style knife without just cause. The two men, who were friends back in California, were sentenced to life, Italy’s most severe penalty. The appeal hearing began Wednesday.